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Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Wretched Group Mind and Faith-Based Bullying

In an article about anti-anti-bullying in The Guardian:
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/03/behind-anti-anti-bullying-backlash
In Michigan last year, the "anti-anti-bullying" lobby went on the offensive with some legislation of their own. In a bill dealing with the bullying issue, they inserted a provision that would have exempted bullies who acted out of "a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction". With an irony that seems more than usually cruel, the bill was named for a Michigan teen who had committed suicide after years of bullying.

A national outpouring of disgust at the Michigan legislature's attempt to legitimize faith-based bullying ultimately resulted in the removal of the provision from the bill. But now the lawmakers of a Tennessee plan to make good on the loss. In what must count as an extraordinarily perverse way to mark the suicide of Jacob Rogers, they have introduced a bill that follows the trail blazed by the Michigan lawmakers, with some inconsequential changes in language, to open up a loophole for verbal bullying that is motivated by religious prejudices...
Faith-based bullying...

I will never understand how so many people who are individually good and caring become monstrous in their group efforts. There is a morality to individual life and to group life. An example of group life and group mind might be the Marine Corps, which serves to inculcate Honor, Fidelity, and Service.
Then there are the rest of us, many of whom learn to act like vigilantes, posses, and madding crowds.

Any group of people that can come up with the Concept of Faith-Based Bullying and strive for its implementation are monsters of misplaced morals.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

You may be right about the Marine Corps group mind . . . but all Marines are not necessarily in that group. In fact, a goodly number aren't.

Montag said...

No, not all Marines are in that group, but I am just remembering how schools, churches, and parents tried to mold us as individuals and as groups and teams. They always tried to make us something better, and not degrade us into something worse... like "faith-based bullies"!